Welcome to Gaia! ::

Trees That Sing had to admit, the edge of the swamp had some pretty nice pebbles. He'd spent most of the day working his way around, looking for smooth, colorful pebbles to add to his collections, and slowly his hooves clomped onto firmer and firmer ground. Still, there was plenty of water about, and the buck took to dunking his head under, occasionally grazing on the tender aquatic plants but otherwise looking through the somewhat murky water for the small rocks he desired. Before long, a hint of color on the muddy bottom caught his eye, and he leaned down to deftly pluck the object up with his lips; raising his head with a great sloshing of water, he gave his head a good shaking before spitting out his prize on the ground.

Oh..... just a half-rotted berry. Well that was disappointing.

Nosing over his find with a disappointed snort, Trees caught the sound of approaching hoofsteps, and his ears flicked up curiously before his head rose to join it. Oh, that was a--a... well, not a Kimeti. His nostrils flared to catch a scent, and a helpful breeze brought to him aridness and dust, like... a desert! He thought for a moment, then remembered the different kin he'd met about a year back. That made this one... an Acha. That was the name, right? He thought it was, anyway, though keeping up with the times wasn't really his style. Collecting pebbles was much more interesting to him, usually, not that he wouldn't turn down meeting new kin. Some of them were rather odd looking, really...

Giving himself another shake to rid himself of last drops of water, the buck casually stomped on the berry as he sauntered closer to the desert exotic, tail swaying in the slow openness of a friendly approach. "Hello. I'm Trees That Sing." That was Trees, alright--giving his name was as easy as taking a breath.

What a tiny hoof... he spent a moment gawking at her slender legs before realizing the question, glancing at the water with a slight tail flick.

"Oh, I was looking for pebbles. I like collecting the colorful ones, and I thought I might find some in the water here. No luck so far, though..." His tone took on a slight ruefulness, but he wasn't all that embarrassed, really. Most kin saw his pebble collecting as somewhat strange, though certainly not among the strangest of the eccentric ways for some Kimeti that called the swamp home.

Well then, that's a pleasant surprise--his own ears start to rise, nostrils flaring with enthusiasm. "Two sets of eyes is always better than one," he responds amiably, "Would you prefer just looking on the ground instead of in the water?" Desert living kin didn't like water, did they? Deserts were supposed to be dry, or something like that.

"Sounds like a plan, then." Swinging his head around, the Kimeti sauntered back over to the water's edge and plunged his head without further ado, back to his search for pebbles. When he didn't find anything in his immediate range though, he took several shuffling steps sideways, not even bothering to raise his head in the process. Still, he was a bit curious about the slender legged kin helping out, and the buck kept his head up just enough so that his ears could stay out of the water and swiveled in her direction.

At the sound of cracking wood, Trees quickly lifted his face out of the stream, water rolling off in rivulets as he watched her taking care of the root. Well, she certainly was capable of handling things on her own, though quite differently from a Kimeti. Still so intriguing to look at, too...

Trees wasn't so laidback that he couldn't admire a female when he saw one, and it took him a long moment to realize that he was simply watching her instead of looking for more pebbles; reluctantly, he tore his gaze away and plunged his face under once more, keeping a lookout for the telltale glimmers of color or light that heralded a good find. Even so, he couldn't fault his mind for turning to thoughts of that supple gray figure, the flecks of golden coloration like rare pebbles caught and kept there with magic.

A glimmering little reflection finally caught his eye, and Trees wasted no time in reaching down and snatching up the object in his mouth, rising up from the water and hardly bothing to shake himself this time before spitting out his find, eager to make sure it wasn't something like the berry again. And it wasn't--a nice shiny blue pebble, which he nosed admiringly before picking up and pushing into the side of his mouth so he could carry it around easily. Then he looked about for the the Acha, flicking his tail as he spotted her and moving to be right across the stream from her.

"So, do you come to the swamp often? I would think there's too much water for someone who's from the desert to like it here."

"That's nice, we do have a lot of colorful things here. I guess the desert doesn't have very many flowers, does it?" Trees pawed at the ground lightly, stepping over closer to her and tilting his head to the side.